Cylinder head supporting fixtures



March 26, 1963 J. 'r. CLARK CYLINDER HEAD SUPPORTING FIXTURES FiledSept. 21, 1961 FIG. 2

v INVENTOR. JAMES I T. CL'A'RK EEK FIG. 6

ATTORNEY United States Patent ()fiice Patented Mar. 26, 1963 3,083,004CYLINDER HEAD SUPPORTING FIXTURES James T. Clark, Fort Morgan, Col0.,assiguor to Clark- Feather Manufacturing (30., Fort Morgan, (1010., acorporation of Colorado Filed Sept. 21, 1961, Ser. No. 139,736 1 Claim.(Cl. 269-51) This invention relates to a shop fixture supporting thecylinder head of an automotive engine in convenient positions to beworked upon by the shop mechanic.

Cylinder heads are heavy, bulky and of inconvenient shapes and areexceedingly difficult to handle on a conventional work bench. Forinstance, when removing and replacing the valves in the head, the lattermust be turned on edge and propped up so that a conventional springcompressor can be placed against the spring on top of the head and thevalve on the bottom of the head. It is difficult to maintain the head inposition during the spring compressing operation. After removal of thevalves the head must be completely inverted for inspection and grindingof the valve seats and then turned upright for inspecting the valve stemsleeves spark plug removal and other shop operations. All of thisrequires continual lifting, turning and propping of the head.

The principal object of this invention is to provide a simple easilyused and highly efiicient bench fixture consisting of two simple parts,a bench portion which is permanently attached to the work bench and ahead portion arranged for quick temporary attachment to a cylinder head,which, when the two parts are assembled together, will rigidly supportthe cylinder head in convenient working position in front of the bench.

A further object is to provide a cylinder head supporting fixture asabove described which will enable the position of the head to be quicklychanged to any desired one of a plurality of positions without requiringlifting of the head and without the use of tools and which will rigidlysupport the head in any of the selected positions.

Other objects and advantages reside in the detail construction of theinvention, which is designed for simplicity, economy, and efliciency.These will become more apparent from the following description.

In the following detailed description of the invention, reference is hadto the accompanying drawing which forms a part hereof. Like numeralsrefer to like parts in all views of the drawing and throughout thedescription.

In the drawing:

FIG. 1 is a top view of the improved cylinder head supporting fixture inplace on a typical work bench supporting a conventional engine cylinderhead in an inverted position;

FIG. 2 is an enlarged detail top view of the assembled fixture;

FIG. 3 is a side elevational view of the bench portion of the fixture;

FIG. 4 is a side elevational view of the head portion of the fixture;

FIG. 5' is a cross-section through the head portion, taken on the line5-5, FIG. 3; and

FIG. 6 is a similar cross-section through the head portion, taken on theline 66, FIG. 4.

In FIG. 1 a typical 4 cylinder head is indicated at 12 with its valvesat 13, spark plugs at 14, and cap screw openings at 15, and a portion ofthe top of a conventional work bench is indicated at 16. This inventionis designed to adjustably support the head 12 from the bench 16.

The bench portion of the improved fixture comprises a base plate 17 anda tubular bearing sleeve 18. The base plate is preferably rectangularand of greater length than width and is provided with suitable boltholes 19 for receiving suitable bolts 26 by means of which the baseplate may be rigidly attached to the top of the work bench 16.

The bearing sleeve 18 compresses a steel tube substantiallycorresponding to the base plate in length and is welded to or otherwisepermanently aflixed along the longitudinal center line of the top of thebase plate 17. The rear extremity of the bearing sleeve is swedged toform a hexagonal rear terminal portion as shown at 21.

The head portion of the fixture comprises a hexagonal shaft 22consisting of a length of hexagonal steel bar stock having a somewhatrounded rear extremity 23 and provided with a stopflange 24 weldedcircumferentially adjacent its forward extremity. The length of thehexagonal shaft from the flange to the rear extremity corresponds to thelength of the bearing sleeve 18. Thus, it can be seen that when thehexagonal shaft is fully inserted in the bearing sleeve, its rearextremity will enter the hexagonal terminal portion 21 of the sleeve toprevent rotation of the shaft and if the shaft be drawn forwardly adistance equal to the width of the terminal portion it can be freelyrotated in the sleeve.

A cap screw 25 is threaded into one of the flat sides of the hexagonalshaft forwardly of the flange 24 by means of which the rear extremitiesof two elongated bracket arms 26 and 27 are adjustably clamped to theforward extremity of the hexagonal shaft.

The arm 26 is an elongated flat bar provided at the outer extremity withan elongated bolt slot 28 in which a head clamp bolt 29 is suspended.The arm 27 is similar to the arm 26 in that it also is provided with anelongated bolt slot 36 to receive a second head clamp bolt 31. The arm27, however, is vertically offset, as shown at 32, so that, although itsinner extremity overlaps the arm 26, its outer extremity will be in thesame plane as the outer extremity of the arm 26.

In use, the bolts 29 and 31 are slipped through two of the cap screwholes 15 in the head at one extremity of the latter and are adjustedalong the slotted bolt holes 28 and 30 to position the shaftsubstantially in alignment with the center line of the head. The bolts29 and 31 and the cap screw 25 are securely tightened and the shaft 22is inserted in the sleeve 18 so that the cylinder head will becantileverally supported from the base plate 17.

The only time the head need be lifted is when the shaft 22 is initiallyinstalled in the sleeve 18. From then on, the head can be rotated to sixdifferent positions by simply drawing it forwardly to release thehexagonal shaft from the hexagonal portion 21 and rotating it to thedesired position.

While a specific form of the improvement has been described andillustrated herein, it is to be understood that the same may be variedwithin the scope of the appended claim, without departing from thespirit of the invention.

Having thus described the invention, what is claimed and desired to besecured by Letters Patent is:

A cylinder head supporting fixture comprising: a base plate; means forsecuring said base plate to a supporting surface; a horizontal bearingtube rigidly in said base 3,083,004 3 4 plate; an indented hexagonalrear extremityon said beartudinally movable along said bracket arms forattaching ing tube; a hexagonal shaft in said bearing tube, the rear thelatter to a cylinder head. extremity of said shaft engaging thehexagonal rear ex-t tremity in said bearing tube; a flange formed onsaid References Cited in the file of this Patent shaft adjacent itsforward extremity; a cap screw threaded 5 UNITED STATES PATENTS into oneof the. fiat sides of the hexagonal shaft forwardly 243,262 Howie June21, 1881 of said flange; two bracket arms pivotally mounted at 1,274,074Obrien July 1919 their rear extremities on said cap screw so as to swingin 2 5 3 50 Montague Sept 13 5 the plane of said flat side; andattachment means lon gi- 2,707,819 Silliman May 10, 1955

